Greatest SAMURAI flicks EVER...LIST...?

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 12:31 am

I just finished the first one, OMG, that was nuts. His sword style is absolutely insane, the quickness is just ridiculous, you just blink and the sword sliced the dude.

I was just looking through the movie titles and

[12] Zatoichi.and.the.Chess.Expert.1965

stood out as one that could be pretty sick. But I'm just gonna go in order until I get there.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 11:43 am

that's a good one, again one of the more talky ones though

my favorites so far have been:

zatoichi 2 - zatoichi faces off against his brother ironically played by his real life brother Tomabisura Wakayama, who is incidentally best known here as Shogun Assasin

zatoichi 6 - artistically mindblowing, just check out the opening credits. Tons of action, really good story, and Wakayama is back again as a different character this time rocking a bullwhip as a weapon. My favorite out of the series

zatoichi 21: the festival of fire - this is just a slugfest

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 5:35 pm

drizzle wrote:that's a good one, again one of the more talky ones though

my favorites so far have been:

zatoichi 2 - zatoichi faces off against his brother ironically played by his real life brother Tomabisura Wakayama, who is incidentally best known here as Shogun Assasin

zatoichi 6 - artistically mindblowing, just check out the opening credits. Tons of action, really good story, and Wakayama is back again as a different character this time rocking a bullwhip as a weapon. My favorite out of the series

zatoichi 21: the festival of fire - this is just a slugfest

I just finished watching Zatoichi 2, HOLY SHIT

seriously, the ending is off the hook.

spoiler ahead

How Sukegoro and his boys are walking thinking that Zatoichi died in the river and then all of a sudden:

Zatoichi: Sukegoro... Zatoichi is not floating in the river
Sukegoro: But how could you--
Zatoichi: The man you reported to the police, Yoshiro of Nagisa, was my own brother. He died this morning. That makes two men who have died because of you.
Sukegoro: No, that's not true! Yoshiro was--
Zatoichi: You must die too... Die! (

)

*music get violent and Zatoichi slashes the shit out of Sukegoro in a beautiful cinematic ending*

This one definitely was more in tune with what I like in comparison to the first one, which was still fucken awesome.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:01 pm

glad you're digging these

you know what's crazy, zatoichi is actually the most prolific action franchize in the world, far more so then the one that usually gets credited with this distinction (which is Bond of course). At the current rate of release for bond movies, they wont catch up for another 10 years or something. And if you take the series into account, bond won't catch up ever

BusinessMan · Post by **BusinessMan** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:31 pm

is it the same actor in every single zatoichi movie, excluding the most recent one of course?

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 6:35 pm

Yes, Shintaro Katsu who was one of the most gifter actors working in samurai cinema (and just cinema period) at the time. The whole Zatoichi franchise is his brainchild, he starred in every single film and episode of the series except the Kitano remake from 2 years ago. He died in 97.

Insteresting fact about this guy, Kurosawa wanted to work with him but was discouraged and turned off by the fact that Katsu had a reputation for being a rabid drinker, gambler and womanizer.

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:23 pm

Actually, that's not entirely true. Kurosawa fully intended to use Katsu as the lead role in Kagemusha and cast him and everything, but on one of the first days of shooting they had a huge fight because Katsu wanted copies of the dailies so he could review his performance. Kurosawa refused as he never gave the dailies to any actors and Katsu felt insulted as he always reviewed his performance on his other movies. Katsu left in a huff and Kurosawa didn't try hard enough to work the situation out so that was that.

This is fairly fresh in my mind as I just read a book called Waiting on the Weather which was written by Kurosawa's longest running collaborator Teruyo Nogami (she started off as a script girl and worked up to associate producer). Incidentally, I recommend the book pretty highly.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:27 pm

i like my story better stormy, but i don't have a source to back it up

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:27 pm

oh also hello forum lol

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:28 pm

i'm just gonna post blatantly wrong shit that you would be itching to correct just to get you to trick you into posting more

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 12:45 am

katsu -vs- kurosawa. i think i read somewhere that katsu also had his own film crew following him around during the beginning stages of working with Akira. AK wasn't too happy with that either.

regardless, Nakadai is still one of japans goat actors in my book.

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:03 am

darkwingduck wrote:katsu -vs- kurosawa. i think i read somewhere that katsu also had his own film crew following him around during the beginning stages of working with Akira. AK wasn't too happy with that either.

regardless, Nakadai is still one of japans goat actors in my book.

actually yeah, I think you're right on that

it wasn't the dailies that were the issue, it was that katsu wanted his crew to film his performance so that he could review it later

and drizzle I would have posted more, but I didn't have the internet

and even now I'm only on shitty ass dialup

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Tue May 20, 2008 12:36 pm

brought this back since there's some really cool shit out this week and the next

two movies from the complete opposite ends of the chambara spectrum

First, Shinobi 2. This series is known to be the first to seriously explore ninjas in some depth as far as their history and role within japanese society. It's also famous for showing realistic ninjitsu tactics, as opposed to wild special effects and trampoline bouncing usually associated with the subject. The first in the series placed equal amounts of emphasis on the story and characters as it did on the action, I'm looking forward to more of the same here. Don't expect nonstop sword slashing with geysers of bloodspray.

Next, Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight. The alternate title for this is Porno Bushido which should tell you a lot. Directed by Teruo Ishii who's most famous for wild colorful exploitation, this is a nonstop barrage of fighting and tits with a bit of rough sexploitation thrown in for the hell of it (considering this is technically part of the Joys of Torture series it could've been worse). Ishii absolutely does not give a flying fuck about compelling dramatic storytelling, or even making sense for that matter. This is just an excuse for him to stage some outlandish set pieces, heavy on slow motion and neon-bright surrealistic set design. A particular favorite of mine was the scene of a ninja fighting 6 naked chicks, if that kind of thing appeals to you buy this immediately.

Here's a trailer, that does a damn good job of selling the movie (NSFW): http://www.nipponcinema.com/trailers/bo ... ten_eight/

Spartan · Post by **Spartan** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:04 pm

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:20 pm

fuck that brings up bad memories

drizz you remember all those japanese posters on ebay?

I was *thisfuckingclose* to getting an awesome one of porno bushido

I didn't even know what it was

but the poster was so ill

a ninja just cold eating a bitch out like what

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:24 pm

yeah i remember that, it is a shame. Now that i've seen it I'd kill for a poster of it

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:27 pm

damn kid I just noticed you're creeping on 16000 posts when the fuck did that happen

(not hating, just couldn't help noticing, I can't talk anyway since between here and the two roo boards I've probably racked up over 25,000)

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Tue May 20, 2008 1:31 pm

i know i posted like mad in the first few years i was here, but i thought i slowed down a bit since then. guess not

Donny Chicago · Post by **Donny Chicago** » Tue May 20, 2008 3:21 pm

Since most of the ones I would name have been named... ill hit this up with a few new ones....

Princess Blade
Versus
Lowly Ronin: Duel at dawn
Lowly Ronin: Spray of blood
Onmyoji
The Twilight samurai

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:05 pm

where did you get the lowly ronin ones?

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:03 am

im back up in this mother with the ninja shoes on.

just watched...altho not really samurai. close enough to get my katana out to swing it around at 2 am on my block.

watching the shogun assassin series has got me going. still need to catch 3 thru 5...damn. how many are they gonna have...?

so the TV series is coming out now. anybody up on these?

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:09 am

i have the first 3 volumes of the tv series (4th isn't out till october), they're good as hell. not quite as good as the movies due to lower production values and the inherent impossibility of successfully replacing Tomabisuro Wakayama, but still very worth while if you're a fan of the movies. def as good as the zatoichi tv series

there's no more shogun assasin volumes i think, those 5 correspond to the 6 Lone Wolf and Cub movies

can't belive i've had wolves for 2 weeks and haven't even opened it yet, i've been anticipating it for a while

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:12 am

the fifth shogun assassin movie should be the last

there were six lone wolf and cub movies and since the first SA combined the first two LWaC movies into one that would make five total SA's

I used to have that tv show but my harddrive crashed before I could watch it

All I can really tell you is that it was like 30 gigs for the first season

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:14 am

drizzle wrote:can't belive i've had wolves for 2 weeks and haven't even opened it yet, i've been anticipating it for a while

what are you waiting for? DOPE DOPE DOPE. nakadai is thorough in this.

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:15 am

HI-YAH

double post

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:20 am

just haven't had the right time to sit down with it yet

360 · Post by **360** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:39 am

Anyone have KungFu HD?

They recently had a Zatoichi marathon. That channel is highly official.

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 9:47 pm

360 wrote:Anyone have KungFu HD?

They recently had a Zatoichi marathon. That channel is highly official.

tell me more about this channel? available for satellite or what...?

darkwingduck · Post by **darkwingduck** » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:57 pm

picked this up this week. been waiting quite a long time for a region 1 to drop.

not that my review matters shit but i heard from mad japanese folks sayin this is the grand daddy freshness of chambra flics...

any movie with 13 golden bear awards is a must watch for sure.

StormShadow · Post by **StormShadow** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 3:38 pm

I think? That it got THE golden bear at the 13th Berlinale, but still, that's the top prize